190 VILLA GARDENING paet ii 



flower, and must occupy a light position. Every time, all through 

 the season, the watering must be carefully done, for if damp lodges 

 about the plants, especially at the base of the leaves, decay often 

 sets in, the plants sustain injiu-y, and sometimes death ensues. 

 But this tendency to decay at tlae bottom of the leaves is very 

 often caused by bad management early in life. In the first 

 place, the seeds are sown too thickly, and when germination takes 

 place the little seedlings are left too long, drawing each other 

 up in a weakly condition in the seed-pots, and, as a consequence, 

 the little plants have legs abnormally long, and these long legs 

 are a great som-ce of trouble afterwards, very often leading to 

 deep potting to get rid of them, and as often rendering sticks 

 necessary to keep them steady. All this might have been avoided 

 if the seeds had been sown thinly, and the plants grown on in a 

 light position unchecked. 



Seeds. — A few of the finest plants bearing the best and brightest 

 flowers should be placed on a shelf in a light dry situation to 

 produce seeds. I like to select the seed-bearers from the latest- 

 sown batch which flower in spring. The flowers should be daily 

 gone over with the camel-hair pencil when they are dry. Unless 

 this be diligently followed up the crop of seeds will be small. By 

 saving seeds from the best flowers only, a good strain will in com'se 

 of time be originated, which will annually become more valuable. 

 It is best to raise young plants annually and discard tlie old ones, 

 as the young plants are best and carry the best foliage. 



Double Primulas. — These are very beautiful, and are also 

 very valuable for cutting. Some of the newer forms have large 

 flowers, the single pips of which, when wired, are usefid for 

 bouquet making. The double forms require much the same treat- 

 ment as the single kinds, only, of course, they must be rooted from 

 cuttings or by division of the root stock in spring, wliereby it 

 will often happen that pieces can be detached with roots attached. 

 The division for the puri)oses of propagation is usually best efiected 

 in spring after the principal flowering is over. Old plants may be 

 cut into as many pieces as they have shoots or crowns, and each 

 shoidd be put into a small pot filled firmly with very sandy jieat, 

 afterwards placing the pots in a nice steady bottom-heat of 70° or 

 so. They must be kept as close as is consistent with an absence 

 of damping, which must be guarded against. But mider favom*- 

 able circumstances there is no diflicidty in working up a stock, 

 and there are no plants more useful for w-inter work. In dividing 

 the plants in spring a few of the healthiest and best may be potted 

 on as they are, to form specimens and show what the double 

 Primida is capable of when grown in a light house near the 



